“The Director (Susan Taylor) and Trustees of the New Orleans Museum of Art” (as stated on the invitation) held a Patron Preview of “East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography” at the museum. A half-hour reception was followed with remarks by Susan Taylor, NOMA Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints and Drawings Russell Lord, and Diane Waggoner of the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery in association with NOMA. In New Orleans, support came from the Freeman Family Curatorial Fund, the A. Charlotte Mann and Joshua Mann Pailet Endowment Fund, the Azby Museum Fund, The Helis Foundation, and Tim L. Fields, Esq. Delta Air Lines provided additional support. “East of the Mississippi” runs through Jan. 7, 2018.

Among those previewing the treasured photographs and learning that photography came to the U.S. in 1839 were Tina Freeman, Tommy and Dathel Coleman, Casey and Conny Willems, Bob and Sharon Weilbaecher, John and Priscilla Lawrence, and Courtney-Anne Sarpy with brother and sister-and-law John and Linda Sarpy. And, Bill Fagaly, Terri Romano, Robert and Millie Kohn, Phil and Eleanor Straub, Beatrice Germaine, Alice Reese, Jude Swenson, Carol and Tom Reese, and from Russell Lord’s family, spouse Dana Gruber and their kids, Noah and Eleanor Lord. All were riveted by the early photographs of New Orleans, especially those by Theodore Lilienthal (the “late” St. Charles Hotel) and Jay Dearborn Edwards (“Esplanade at Royal Street”).

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Read the entire article on The Advocate’s website.